Cherry Blossom Festival

Cherry Blossom Festival (Hawaii)

February-March

The Cherry Blossom Festival in Hawaii is an annual Japanese cultural celebration held in Honolulu, usually from mid-February until the first week in April. The beauty of cherry blossoms is almost sacred in Japan, but the cherry blossoms of this festival are purely symbolic; cherry trees don't grow in Hawaii. The festival offers a variety of events: presentations of Kabuki drama, traditional Japanese dances, martial arts, and Japanese films, as well as demonstrations of such arts as weaving and paper-doll making. The celebration was created in 1953 by the Honolulu Japanese community to "bridge the cultural gap by sharing with others the essence of the Japanese heritage."
See also Hanami

CONTACTS:
Honolulu Japanese Junior Chamber of Commerce
2454 S. Beretania St., Ste. 205
Honolulu, HI 96826
808-949-2255; fax: 808-627-8841
www.cbfhawaii.com

SOURCES:
GdUSFest-1984, p. 43

Celebrated in: Hawaii

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Cherry Blossom Festival (Northern California)

April

More than 2,000 Japanese Americans and performers from Japan participate in this festival in San Francisco's Japantown that takes place over two consecutive weekends in April. Based on Hanami, a traditional festival in Japan, this celebration of Japanese culture and customs includes exhibitions of Japanese art and dancing, kimono and obi (the sash worn with a kimono) demonstrations, tea ceremonies, and bonsai exhibits. The climax of the festival is a three-hour parade from City Hall to the Japan Center at Post and Fillmore Streets. The parade includes singers and dancers, floats, Akita dogs, Taiko drummers, the Cherry Blossom Queen, and the traditional Taru Mikoshi, a portable shrine piled so high with casks of sake—an alcoholic beverage made from rice—that it takes 100 men to carry it. The festival lasts for seven days, covering two weekends in April. It was first held in 1968 to mark the official opening of San Francisco's Japan Center.

CONTACTS:
San Francisco Convention and Visitors Bureau
900 Market St., Ste. 900
San Francisco, CA 94103
415-391-2000; fax: 415-974-1992
nccbf.org

SOURCES:
GdUSFest-1984, p. 22